Our Family!
Monday, April 28, 2014
....and it`s CHINA!
I can tell you now what country the shirts will have on them.....CHINA! We just got the call this morning that we are good to go :) And let me tell you, that was one anxiously awaited call. I think my heart stopped beating when I saw the number on my cell phone screen...I knew who was calling and that this was the yes or no moment! I was at the end of myself last night, fed up with the not knowing and long days of waiting to find out if China would give us the waivers or not....and then this morning I had a message from someone that didn`t even know me, wanting to share about an orphanage in China...she didn`t even know that we were thinking of China, she just felt led to share with me. I am so thankful she did...it was like a confirmation before the actual confirmation...but me of little faith, I was still almost too scared to think of it that way! I`m learning that God works in ways that I`m not expecting, and His blessings and answers aren`t usually in the form that I`m looking for :) I`m a slow learner....it`s taken me awhile to understand this :) My heart is so much lighter than it was a few hours ago, and even though I know there is still so much to do and a long ways to go, I am just so thankful to have the direction figured out!
Friday, April 25, 2014
Letting go...
I`m not really sure where to start??!! The last 2 weeks have seen a lot of ups and downs....and lots of different emotions. We started this journey to a little girl in Peru...and we had such excitement and HOPE and it just felt right somehow. Then we learned of another family who also felt led to this little girl and felt that she is their daughter....now we had a dilemma. What to do?! Continue on, knowing that God would place this child in the home He had picked for her and trust if we weren`t her parents that He would show us another child from Peru? Or just stop pursuing her and adoption from Peru altogether? Decisions decisons....we prayed and prayed and begged God to show us which direction we needed to be going. We definitely didn`t want to be in "competition" with anyone over a child, and we just felt pretty torn. Little by little though, we began to feel God saying Let her go....
We both came to the same decision on the same day that we needed to let her go and trust that God would provide. We both felt peace about it...and then it seemed that God confirmed our decision not even 30 minutes later, by something that happened. We are still okay with this, and felt that God had put another direction in our hearts, and another country to go to (that ironically we neither one have ever felt drawn to, and actually didn`t think that the children were all that cute...I repent of this now :) ) We struggled pretty hard against this direction....We are still waiting for the confirmation that this is it, but we are hoping and trusting that God will move the obstacles that stand in this path like He has the others before it.
This https://www.booster.com/mwolfadoption is still going and all I can tell you is that the shirts won`t have Central America on them....but I can`t say yet which country they will have :) Trust me....as soon as this all gets sorted out, I will be shouting it from the rooftops!!
We still feel led to a little girl with Down syndrome, I don`t know why that`s so strong on our hearts, but it is. It`s such a different direction from what I`ve always pictured our adoption looking like, a little brown brother for Atley :) People have asked why we aren`t wanting a boy since Atley is sorta outnumbered :) and I can`t really say for sure why it`s turning out this way, other than I trust that God has worked it out for our good!
I`ve worked through so many emotions this week, some of them I really would rather not be feeling :( but the most prominent one seems to be sorrow and tears. I feel something that I can`t really put into words, concerning our child, who we have yet to see or know about, but it`s heavy and it sits on my heart, and I cry out to God to take care of our child for me, wherever she might be. It`s hard to imagine missing someone that you can`t even picture, but to me it feels like something is missing, and it`s felt that way for awhile. I have also felt extreme frusturation at the waiting process of getting this all figured out....patience and trust is not my strongest feature...! I still don`t know yet and was really hoping to not go into the weekend not knowing, but I just have to keep trusting that God will work this all out and it will all turn out SO GOOD and RIGHT in the end.
And I also have to say that we are just standing AMAZED at what has happened with the tshirt fundraiser!! We never EVER expected it to raise this much...guess you could say we had pretty little faith. So we just want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who felt led to buy a shirt and for all the other donations also. I really can`t say how much it means to know that there are people that support us and are willing to share in this burden. It seems like such a large amount of money to raise somehow, but we are (trying to) trust that God will provide! We are only 4 shirts away from the goal of 50...and that`s just amazing to us. Only God!
We both came to the same decision on the same day that we needed to let her go and trust that God would provide. We both felt peace about it...and then it seemed that God confirmed our decision not even 30 minutes later, by something that happened. We are still okay with this, and felt that God had put another direction in our hearts, and another country to go to (that ironically we neither one have ever felt drawn to, and actually didn`t think that the children were all that cute...I repent of this now :) ) We struggled pretty hard against this direction....We are still waiting for the confirmation that this is it, but we are hoping and trusting that God will move the obstacles that stand in this path like He has the others before it.
This https://www.booster.com/mwolfadoption is still going and all I can tell you is that the shirts won`t have Central America on them....but I can`t say yet which country they will have :) Trust me....as soon as this all gets sorted out, I will be shouting it from the rooftops!!
We still feel led to a little girl with Down syndrome, I don`t know why that`s so strong on our hearts, but it is. It`s such a different direction from what I`ve always pictured our adoption looking like, a little brown brother for Atley :) People have asked why we aren`t wanting a boy since Atley is sorta outnumbered :) and I can`t really say for sure why it`s turning out this way, other than I trust that God has worked it out for our good!
I`ve worked through so many emotions this week, some of them I really would rather not be feeling :( but the most prominent one seems to be sorrow and tears. I feel something that I can`t really put into words, concerning our child, who we have yet to see or know about, but it`s heavy and it sits on my heart, and I cry out to God to take care of our child for me, wherever she might be. It`s hard to imagine missing someone that you can`t even picture, but to me it feels like something is missing, and it`s felt that way for awhile. I have also felt extreme frusturation at the waiting process of getting this all figured out....patience and trust is not my strongest feature...! I still don`t know yet and was really hoping to not go into the weekend not knowing, but I just have to keep trusting that God will work this all out and it will all turn out SO GOOD and RIGHT in the end.
And I also have to say that we are just standing AMAZED at what has happened with the tshirt fundraiser!! We never EVER expected it to raise this much...guess you could say we had pretty little faith. So we just want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who felt led to buy a shirt and for all the other donations also. I really can`t say how much it means to know that there are people that support us and are willing to share in this burden. It seems like such a large amount of money to raise somehow, but we are (trying to) trust that God will provide! We are only 4 shirts away from the goal of 50...and that`s just amazing to us. Only God!
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Why?? ( and a fundraiser!)
Thanks to Bryan and Betsy Wolf, we have started our first fundraising effort! Betsy designed the shirts and is taking care of it for us. Here is the link if you want to check it out...https://www.booster.com/mwolfadoption. I have to confess, asking for money is not a strong point...it feels very funny and very humbling. But we can`t do this by ourselves, and we are trusting that God will provide the funds in His timing. We are working towards our next agency payment, due in 3-5 months, plus there will be other adoption expenses in that time too. If anyone has any questions about what we`re doing or why we`re doing it, we are more than glad to talk about it :) The child we are hoping to bring home has Down syndrome and also a congenital heart condition, and we have hopes of being fully funded so that we don`t have to go into a large amount of debt to do this.
James 1:27 has this to say..."Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." And James 2:14-17 says this.."What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister ( or child) be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled: not withstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?" We can`t save all the orphans in the world, or even make a difference to very many of them....but we can make a difference in ONE childs life, and that`s what we`re attempting to do.
Why do we feel called to do this?
In other countries, children with Down syndrome or other physical or mental disabilities are looked down on and they are a stigma, better kept away from the view of others. In Eastern Europe, they are taken straight to an orphanage from the hospital, where they live until they are about 5 years old. Then they are transferred to adult mental institutions, where the living conditions are horrendous and it is said that 95% of these precious children die within a year, because they just can`t survive the conditions they live in. This explains it much better than I ever could, please read it! http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2012/02/power-of-one.html I encourage you to search out and read about the orphan crisis in the world....the statistics will blow you away.
In an orphanage in Africa, this really happened to a little boy, http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-yukky-story-that-must-be-shared.html How awful is this?!?! There is just no way to comprehend it.
Our desire is to make a difference in just ONE childs life, and hopefully more through foster care. We can`t do it all, nor do we feel called to do it all. But with Gods help, we feel called to do this one thing! It doesn`t feel like a sacrifice, even though we are prepared to give up some of our dreams and aspirations....we are just plain excited! There will be, and have been, so many ups and downs and discouragements until we reach the finish line, but our God is faithful and we are trusting Him to carry us every step of the (long) way!
James 1:27 has this to say..."Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." And James 2:14-17 says this.."What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister ( or child) be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled: not withstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?" We can`t save all the orphans in the world, or even make a difference to very many of them....but we can make a difference in ONE childs life, and that`s what we`re attempting to do.
Why do we feel called to do this?
In other countries, children with Down syndrome or other physical or mental disabilities are looked down on and they are a stigma, better kept away from the view of others. In Eastern Europe, they are taken straight to an orphanage from the hospital, where they live until they are about 5 years old. Then they are transferred to adult mental institutions, where the living conditions are horrendous and it is said that 95% of these precious children die within a year, because they just can`t survive the conditions they live in. This explains it much better than I ever could, please read it! http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2012/02/power-of-one.html I encourage you to search out and read about the orphan crisis in the world....the statistics will blow you away.
In an orphanage in Africa, this really happened to a little boy, http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-yukky-story-that-must-be-shared.html How awful is this?!?! There is just no way to comprehend it.
Our desire is to make a difference in just ONE childs life, and hopefully more through foster care. We can`t do it all, nor do we feel called to do it all. But with Gods help, we feel called to do this one thing! It doesn`t feel like a sacrifice, even though we are prepared to give up some of our dreams and aspirations....we are just plain excited! There will be, and have been, so many ups and downs and discouragements until we reach the finish line, but our God is faithful and we are trusting Him to carry us every step of the (long) way!
Sunday, April 13, 2014
The FAQS
These are a few of the questions that have been asked regularly, so I thought I`d just answer them for more people to read!
The Cost...
Adoption is costly! " My friends, adoption is redemption.Its costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives cost so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him." Derek Loux.
It will cost between $27000-$30000 to bring our child home. There are alot of little fees that add up to one big fee. Fees for notarizing and apostilling and fingerprinting and coming into our home to declare us fit parents (homestudy) and fees for translating and plane tickets and motels and food. Fees for bringing said child to the USA, visa and medical appts. Fees for attorneys, facilitators, translators. Basically, fees for pretty much everything! But it is worth it! After all, it is just money, and in the bigger scheme of things, doesn`t really matter. But yes, it is a large amount of money to raise to make this happen.
How Long...
There is not set time, and there are lots of ups and downs in this process. Basically, we apply to an agency, they accept us, then we apply to the Immigration part of our government (USCIS) to bring a child into the country. Then we send our paperwork to Peru. All of this takes time to get approval. There is no guarantee, but we have been told 7-12 months. We are, of course, hoping for the shorter of those times, but time will tell!
How Long In Country...
We expect to be there anywhere from 3-5 weeks. We will both go at first, then one of us can come home after about 2 weeks. There again, it just depends on lots of things.
The Child...
We started this process with a certain child on our hearts that we felt God had led us to...there have been some ups and downs in this, and we aren`t sure where God is taking us in all of it. We are trusting that if it isn`t this particular child, then He will show us our child in His timing. We would be grateful for your prayers in this matter, and for peaceful hearts for both of us as we trust in God.
What Do Our Children Think...
They are excited :) When we showed them a picture of the child, not saying anything beyond that she lives in an orphanage and doesn`t have a mommy and daddy to love her, Ellie immediately wanted to pray for her. So we all had prayer time for her, and at the end of the prayers from the three older ones, Ellie said, "Oh! I have one more thing to pray about..." Without any prompting from us or any indication of adopting her, Ellie prayed that God would bring her to live with us. They continued to pray for her to be brought home to us, before we told them what we are trying to do! We are blown away at their acceptance and faith that God will bring her to us.
Foster Care...
Several people have wondered about this, so I will clear up the question :) We are still planning to do foster care, our long term plan has just changed a little for the moment. We would like to focus more on respite care or shorter term placements. And as for the question of why don`t we just adopt from foster care...well, that has it`s own ups and downs. We realize it would be much cheaper and in some ways easier, but we feel that God has placed Peru on our hearts for a reason, and as long as the doors keep opening for that, we will move forwards.
The Cost...
Adoption is costly! " My friends, adoption is redemption.Its costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives cost so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him." Derek Loux.
It will cost between $27000-$30000 to bring our child home. There are alot of little fees that add up to one big fee. Fees for notarizing and apostilling and fingerprinting and coming into our home to declare us fit parents (homestudy) and fees for translating and plane tickets and motels and food. Fees for bringing said child to the USA, visa and medical appts. Fees for attorneys, facilitators, translators. Basically, fees for pretty much everything! But it is worth it! After all, it is just money, and in the bigger scheme of things, doesn`t really matter. But yes, it is a large amount of money to raise to make this happen.
How Long...
There is not set time, and there are lots of ups and downs in this process. Basically, we apply to an agency, they accept us, then we apply to the Immigration part of our government (USCIS) to bring a child into the country. Then we send our paperwork to Peru. All of this takes time to get approval. There is no guarantee, but we have been told 7-12 months. We are, of course, hoping for the shorter of those times, but time will tell!
How Long In Country...
We expect to be there anywhere from 3-5 weeks. We will both go at first, then one of us can come home after about 2 weeks. There again, it just depends on lots of things.
The Child...
We started this process with a certain child on our hearts that we felt God had led us to...there have been some ups and downs in this, and we aren`t sure where God is taking us in all of it. We are trusting that if it isn`t this particular child, then He will show us our child in His timing. We would be grateful for your prayers in this matter, and for peaceful hearts for both of us as we trust in God.
What Do Our Children Think...
They are excited :) When we showed them a picture of the child, not saying anything beyond that she lives in an orphanage and doesn`t have a mommy and daddy to love her, Ellie immediately wanted to pray for her. So we all had prayer time for her, and at the end of the prayers from the three older ones, Ellie said, "Oh! I have one more thing to pray about..." Without any prompting from us or any indication of adopting her, Ellie prayed that God would bring her to live with us. They continued to pray for her to be brought home to us, before we told them what we are trying to do! We are blown away at their acceptance and faith that God will bring her to us.
Foster Care...
Several people have wondered about this, so I will clear up the question :) We are still planning to do foster care, our long term plan has just changed a little for the moment. We would like to focus more on respite care or shorter term placements. And as for the question of why don`t we just adopt from foster care...well, that has it`s own ups and downs. We realize it would be much cheaper and in some ways easier, but we feel that God has placed Peru on our hearts for a reason, and as long as the doors keep opening for that, we will move forwards.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
The Post Where I Bare My Heart...
There are so many thoughts floating around in my mind that I can`t hardly keep up with them...(my husband would have something quite witty to say about that right about now if he were reading this ) All these thoughts about adoption and wondering how God will actually provide in all of this?! It's seeming to be quite different when you're the one in the middle of it, not just reading the exciting FB updates and blog posts of others that talk about how God has provided for this or that need! I feel it deep inside me, that this is good and it is right and God has given this to us....why then is it so hard to rest in God and trust that He will make it happen? Staring at a cost of $30,000 (or more, gasp!) makes me feel quite weak kneed! You would think, that since all we are asked to do is trust in God, that it would be so simple....but I`m finding out like I have never before, that resting in God is actually VERY hard work. More than likely I make it harder than it's supposed to be...I`m pretty good at doing that! I`m very "type A", like to have my plan of action all planned out and know where I`m going and how I`m going to get there. But that`s where I start forgetting that God is in control and I don`t depend on Him like He wants me to. I start thinking that I have to make this happen, if I don`t do it, how else will it get done?!?! I feel like I`m where God wants me, and God is using this whole situation to get my attention. It is very clear to me that only God can work this work, nothing I do will really make a difference. Satan loves to have a hayday with our doubts and fears, and any way he can get into our lives, he will. He loves to make us doubt that God really and truly loves us, and that Gods grace and mercy is ENOUGH. If that is all we had, it would still be ENOUGH. My God is big enough to move mountains, and He is definitely bigger than this large sum of money and uncertain journey. I know deep in my heart it will be okay in the end....but sometimes my brain is so much slower to catch on! So I`m holding on to the end result of all of this process...that day when I see my child and hold him/her in my arms for the first time! It`s amazing how you can love someone so much that you have never even seen in real life, and that lives so far away :)
Friday, April 4, 2014
News!
We have some exciting new to share! We are adopting from Peru! Yes, you read that right :) We are so excited to be starting this (long) process. This will be a special needs adoption, and while at one time we had an idea of what this would look like, as far as the child, we are waiting on God to sort it all out. We have talked and thought about adopting for several years, but it never seemed to be the "right" time for our family. And when we did talk about it, Peru was never on our radar as a place we would consider. It was always Ethiopia or Eastern Europe somewhere. But one day things just turned upside down....!! Peru was brought to our attention, by the picture of a very special child, and it started to seem like it just might be a possibility now. We fell in love with this child and started out with this child in our hearts and minds. While we don`t know how it will all turn out in the end, we know that our God knows and will make His perfect will and plan known to our family. We are resting in this, and trusting in Him.
We don`t really have a clue how this process all works, other than it seems to take whole trees! worth of papers that have to be filled out, signed, initialed, notarized and apostilled! Seriously, lots and lots of paperwork! And lots of fundraisers to do...since we don`t just happen to have $30000 lying around burning a hole in our pockets! But again, we are trusting that God will provide, as He has in the past. We feel that if He has brought us to this point, He will take us through to the other side. As someone wiser than me told me, "If its Gods will, its His bill!" So read along and share in our journey...and maybe someday I can share what started us on this path! Please share however you feel to with others! We have some tentative fundraisers planned, and I would love any ideas you have to share :)
We don`t really have a clue how this process all works, other than it seems to take whole trees! worth of papers that have to be filled out, signed, initialed, notarized and apostilled! Seriously, lots and lots of paperwork! And lots of fundraisers to do...since we don`t just happen to have $30000 lying around burning a hole in our pockets! But again, we are trusting that God will provide, as He has in the past. We feel that if He has brought us to this point, He will take us through to the other side. As someone wiser than me told me, "If its Gods will, its His bill!" So read along and share in our journey...and maybe someday I can share what started us on this path! Please share however you feel to with others! We have some tentative fundraisers planned, and I would love any ideas you have to share :)
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